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One day last November, Julia Chuñil called for her dog, her loyal pet, and they set off into the forest around her home to look for missing farm animals. The cattle returned but Chuñil, then aged 72, and Cholito never reappeared.

More than 100 people participated with her relatives in a search that continued for weeks in the steep, wet and thickly vegetated terrain of the nation of Chile’s ancient Valdivian woodland. A month later, they monitored vultures for any disturbing signs. But they found no trace of Chuñil.

Chuñil is one of one hundred forty-six land and environmental activists who were killed or went missing globally in the previous year, according to a report by the advocacy organization the monitoring entity. About a third of those, like her, were from native groups – a significant burden for populations who together constitute just 6% of the global population.

Chuñil, a leader of the Mapuche Indigenous community in Chile, was living on disputed territory. A decade earlier she had settled in Reserva Cora, a 900-hectare section of the ancient Valdivian ecosystem 500 miles below the capital, which her community claimed as an historical homeland.

For many years she advocating to obtain land rights over the location for her community. However, the site’s nominal owner, the descendant of settlers, refused to relinquish ownership. He wanted the area for logging – the country serves as a major exporter of wood to the US – and he wanted rid of the activist. Prior to her disappearance, Chuñil told supporters: “If anything happens to me, it will be clear who is responsible.”

Global Documentation on Attacks Against Defenders

The organization started documenting cases of killings and vanishing acts of territorial and ecological defenders in the year 2012. From that point, it has collated a overall count of two thousand two hundred fifty-three instances. Over the last ten years, the most dangerous place has been Latin America. Last year it represented eighty-two percent of reported incidents, which involved 45 Indigenous people.

“Land conflict lies at the core of aggression against defenders, and native communities are bearing the greatest cost,” said a senior policy adviser at the group. “Populations with ancestral connections to territory often form the frontline of resistance when their territories come under threat from exploitation and invasion. However, regardless of their critical function, they are often denied acknowledgment and legal redress, and subjected to serious risk for protecting their rightful territories.”

Nation-Specific Data and Under-reporting

Chuñil’s was the only case recorded in her country last year, although it matched a pattern of the targeting of Mapuche activists in Chile. Colombia reported 48 cases, making it the deadliest country overall for environmental defenders, followed by Guatemala with 20 cases, the most dangerous country per capita. Mexico had nineteen incidents, placing it at number three in the ranking.

Incomplete data remains an issue, particularly in the Asian continent and Africa, which registered sixteen and 9 cases each, Global Witness noted. In general, last year the lowest number of cases of killings and disappearances of environmental defenders were documented for a decade.

Laura Furones, who conducted the investigation for Global Witness, said: “I would also like to be able to tell you that this implies a reduction of hostilities and an improvement in the situation for defenders, but unfortunately that’s not true. Rights advocates face situations of violence that extend well past homicide. Often, aggression is transform, become more sophisticated, alter its appearance.”

Continuing Struggle for Justice

Julia’s relatives have persisted in seeking legal resolution but their advocacy has made them a target of threats and intimidation, too. During April, a pair of creatures from her property that they had intended to sell to fund court expenses were found killed, one murdered by gunfire and one poisoned. “It is, above all, a intentional attempt to block us from pursuing this legal matter,” her son a family member informed Global Witness.

Their analysis urges governments to take steps to halt the impunity of the perpetrators of environmental defenders by tackling the absence of rights defenders have over land and territory, strengthening weak domestic judiciary frameworks, and ensuring endangered advocates are provided adequate state protection.

“Our sole request is a full, fair probe to be conducted,” San Martín remarked of his mother’s case. “It’s been almost a year since she disappeared and we’re remain unaware about what happened. Our demand is those behind this to be identified and prosecuted.”